21 Comments

This doesnt work, it just asks for the password to open the file when you insert the file, and you cant select “Tools” until you’ve either entered the correct password or you close the dialog box requesting the password…

good stuff! Thank you. Same goes for Excel – password protected, just copy into new doc and you’re laughin’. I’ve done this for years, now I’ve cracked the Word password problem. (this is the first Word doc I’ve ever had to do it with and it’s only because it belongs to a company who sold me something.) Thanks again.

the author of this ‘solution’ sounds like a guy that picked up my mobile phone in 1993 and proudly informed me that he had cracked the keylock. (you know, press any button and it says press menu then *)
if the original document is only locked for editing then no one is trying to prevent anyone getting at the information, they just dont want anyone mucking about with their file.
There are countless ways of copying/resaving/exporting this info, then saving it. Leaving you with your own file to do with what you like.
My frustrated friends are trying to express that when a document is password protected (i.e. you cant open it without one) then it is an effective way of keeping people out. There are still ways of getting though this encryption, but, if you think you have ‘cracked’ microsoft’s password system by pressing – ctrl+c on one document and ctrl+v on another- then i think fully protected documents will be safe from you.
There are many third party brute force password ‘recovery’ programs availible.
goodnight and farewell…….

Laugher (poster two comments earlier) you DESTROYED this blogger and I must commend you on the matter in which you so eloquently phrased your words. I must say that this blogger did not even want to acknowledge that you were correct regarding the password protection for opening a document. The poster Steph even pointed out why the problem still existed, but yet no mention of how to fix the problem.
There must be some easier (i.e. No 3rd party software hack) to bypass this password protection, it’s Microsoft for god sakes and that is why we are relaying on the FREE distribution of information for which the Internet was intended.
So dear “Blog owner” we appreciate your information but please acknowledge if you don’t understand how to fix or at least admit/solicit for someone else’s help. Thank you.

The easy way is to use vb6 for application with vb6 shell programming . I did it by brut force . If you use only letters it brakes 4 characters word during 24 hours, if you use only numbers it takes 6digit during the same time. If you do mix or add special characters the brut force is not worth to use (to much time). Dictionarry attack would be better but it does not guaranty a solution.

In response to FGI, opening it in WordPad or Notepad only shows garbled text. Opening password protected files that are Word10 are much easier as they can be renamed .zip rather than .docx and you can go into the file and physically remove the document protection then resave it and rename it from .zip back to .docx. Again, this is not the case with Word 03. I was not able to find any extension that allowed me to open the file in a readable fashion. I was also not able to bypass the password protection to open the document. Sometimes, if an employee does not unlock their files before leaving the company, you may run into this situation. I will continue trying to find a way to bypass it without using 3rd party software.